Does Everyone Have a Blind Spot?

Yes, everyone has a blind spot. A blind spot is a small area in the back of the eye where there are no rods or cones to receive light. An object is invisible when its image falls on this spot. In general vision, the brain fills in this blind spot, allowing us to see a total picture.

Light gets into the eye by passing through the pupil. It hits the retina at the back of the eye. The retina is covered with light-sensing proteins. They relay what they sense to the optic nerve which carries the information back into the brain. The problem is, the optic nerve ends in the field of the retina itself. It creates a dark spot.

Most of the time, the other eye will see what’s happening in its partner’s blind, but if the blind spots overlap while looking at a certain object, or if the person is only looking through one eye, the brain just fills in the spot looking at the surrounding picture. Since we have two eyes that can move around, we don’t notice the blind spot often.

Content for this question contributed by Kristie Collins, resident of Taunton, Massachusetts, USA